Mother's Chronicles - Book Five

44

Surat

On Christmas eve, the Nationalist Party from Bengal reached Surat. There were already many delegates who had come and they kept arriving from all over the country. Among them were Ashwini Kumar Dutt from Bengal, G. S. Khaparde and Dr. Munje from the Central Provinces, Lala Lajpat Rai from Punjab, Chidambaram Pillai from the South¹ —in fact, all the leaders worth their salt. And, of course, Tilak from Maharashtra, who had reached Surat a day earlier, on the 23^rd.

The happenings from December 24 onwards are now history. In point of fact, historians have written extensively on them; scholars have presented learned papers; numerous eyewitness accounts have been left for posterity. But for our tale we would like to borrow from the factual report of Sri Aurobindo, and Barin's and Nevinson's racy narrations. All the same, a little background briefing might help the Reader better to follow the subsequent events.

1. In this volume there have been but glancing references to the South. When we go there with Sri Aurobindo we shall meet a good number of its revolutionaries, including Mahakavi Bharati who had translated Bankim's song 'Bande Mataram' into Tamil.

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H. W. Nevinson had met Sri Aurobindo and S. N. Banerji in Calcutta, and had travelled to Surat with the Moderate Party. He had been held in wonder by the magnificence of Surendra nath's phrases and continuity of expression, but found the theme of his speech without much substance.

The same evening he had gone to see Sri Aurobindo. "When I reached the house in a large square ... I found it dark and apparently empty. A Hindu servant let me in, and after a time Mr. Arabindo Ghose himself appeared alone. He had not expected me, because the letter about my coming had been stopped, no doubt by the postal spies, as he said nearly all his letters were. He had no special reason to complain of that, nor did he complain.... He was a youngish man, I should think still under thirty. Intent dark eyes looked from his thin, clear-cut face with a gravity that seemed immovable, but the figure and bearing were those of an English graduate." During their talk Sri Aurobindo explained his purpose and the simple means he proposed to work on. "But behind these simple means a deeper spirit was at work." Nevinson found a fervour of nationality in the young man. "There is a religious tone, a spiritual elevation, in such words very characteristic of Arabindo Ghose himself, and of all Bengali Nationalists.... He was possessed by that concentrated vision.... But at the end of that road he saw a vision more inspiring and spiritual than any fanatic saw who rushed on death with Paradise in sight. Nationalism to him was far more than a political object or a means of material improvement.........Grave with intensity, careless of fate or opinion, and one of the most silent men I have known, he was of the stuff

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that dreamers are made of, but dreamers who will act their dream, indifferent to the means."

And Sri Aurobindo on Nevinson. "Yes, I met him twice. Once in Bengal at Subodh Mullick's place. I was very serious at that time. The next occasion was when I was president of the National Conference at Surat. Then also I couldn't laugh, being the President. So he called me 'the man who never laughs.'" And Sri Aurobindo laughed.

Surat was then a sleepy little old town on the West coast, on the Gulf of Khambat, between Bombay and Baroda. Here the early European traders, Portuguese, Dutch, English and French —they came in that order—had set up their factories soon after Emperor Akbar's death in 1605.

The Moderate Party leaders from Bengal reached the town on Christmas Day. "It was roses, roses all the way—almost all the way during the forty-four hours in the train from Calcutta to Surat ..." wrote Nevinson in his book The New Spirit in India. "The crowd round the station was so tightly jammed that it was a long time before any one could leave the train." Youthful bands of volunteers "in khaki and forage caps at last cleared a space." I met four of them in later life: K. M. Munshi; Durai-swamy Iyer, an eminent and brilliant advocate at the Madras High Court; Dr. Satyendra Thakore, the dentist who was one of the team attending on Sri Aurobindo; and Dr. Manilal from Baroda. "A procession of carriages was formed and began to advance step by step through the shouting throngs of orange, crimson, and white-clad people. All the windows and tottering balconies of the beautiful but decrepit city that starves upon its

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past—even the galleries of Islam's crumbling minarets and the roofs of Hindu temples—were crammed with faces. Women peeped through shutters or stood shamelessly beside their children and brothers. Boys and girls thrust their heads through holes in the ruinous walls. At every few yards more garlands were offered, more bunches of flowers and sweet-smelling seeds. Thick fell the showers of rose-water sprayed from silver bottles. On every side rose the great cheer of 'Bande Mataraml' From end to end the streets were hung with strings of pink and yellow paper flags, and here and there a triumphal arch uttered the universal welcome in Indian or English words."

The two parties had set up separate camps. The Moderates lodged mostly in comfortable tents pitched around the Congress Pandal, a grand pavilion constructed in the historic French Garden, about three kilometres from the town, on the banks of the river Tapti. The Nationalists lodged as best they could. A temple sheltered Sri Aurobindo and a roomful of others. Another temple became Tilak's home-cum-office. "From morning to one o'clock at night an unending stream of people mounted a flight of steps, had 'darshan' of the two leaders as they sat working, then went down other steps," reports Barin, adding that it was far more difficult and complicated to obtain glimpses of the Moderate leaders. The Nationalists' line of work was to mix with the masses ... "till the Indian nation is free." It did everyone's heart good to see them all sit down together to their meals irrespective of caste or religion. "One day as I sat down to my meal," relates Barin, "I saw seated side by side Tilak, Chidambaram Pillai, Haidar

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Reza, Aurobindo and so many others ..." from every part of the country.

In the Extremists' view, "Democracy and equality between the rich and the poor was an essential part of nationalism. " Sri Aurobindo, who was an 'Extremist,' said, recalling illustrative incidents at Surat, "Thinking it our duty to turn the theory into practice, we had travelled together, on our way to Surat, in the same third class. In the camp the leaders, instead of making separate arrangements, would sleep in the same room along with the others. Rich, poor, Brahmin, businessman, Shudra, Bengali, Mahratta, Punjabi, Gujarati, we all stayed, slept, ate together with a wonderful feeling of brotherhood. We slept on the ground, ate the normal fare, made of rice-pulse-curd, in every way it was superlatively swadesi. The 'foreign-returned' from Bombay and Calcutta and the Madrasi Brahmin with his tilak¹ had become one body."

To put the matter cogently we quote Sri Aurobindo's statement which neatly covers the facts. "The session of the Congress had first been arranged at Nagpur, but Nagpur was predominantly a Mahratta city and violently extremist. Gujerat was at that time predominantly Moderate, there were very few Nationalists and Surat was a stronghold of Moderatism though afterwards Gujerat became, especially after Gandhi took the lead, one of the most revolutionary of the provinces. So the Moderate leaders decided to hold the Congress at Surat. The

1. The mark of vermilion or sandalwood paste worn by Hindus on the forehead.

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Nationalists however came there in strength from all parts, they held a public conference with Sri Aurobindo as President."

It was in the afternoon of the 24^th that the Nationalist Conference in Ghee-Kanta Wadi was held. The delegates paid one rupee each, as it had been announced in the pages of the Bande Mataram. More than a thousand delegates attended the conference. On the motion of Khaparde, Sri Aurobindo was elected to the Chair. In a few brief words the Chairman stated the purpose of Nationalism. He then called upon Tilak to speak in detail. Tilak made a very clear and forceful statement. He regretted the watering down of the resolutions adopted at the Calcutta Congress the previous year. But he reiterated the resolve of the Nationalists not to break the Congress but to arrive at an amicable settlement with the Moderates. In fact, he and other Nationalist leaders spared no effort to bring about a compromise. "We Nationalists have no desire to break the Con gress or to part company with our less forward countrymen," the Bande Mataram had written on 4 December, "but we have our path to follow and our work to do."

To continue with Sri Aurobindo's statement. "It was known that the Moderate leaders had prepared a new constitution for the Congress which would make it practically impossible for the extreme party to command a majority at any annual session for many years to come. The younger Nationalists, especially those from Maharashtra, were determined to prevent this by any means and it was decided by them to break the Congress if they could not swamp it; this decision was unknown to Tilak

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and the older leaders. But it was known to Sri Aurobindo." Being a true politician, he did not give out his plans but kept things to himself.

On Boxing Day —a Thursday—at 2:30 in the afternoon, the Congress Convention began. "In that enormous pavilion of striped canvas full ten thousand people were already assembled," wrote Nevinson. There were the Congress delegates, with a separate block for each province, and the vast audience who had paid for seats. "The whole interior, constructed on different levels so that all might see, rose and fell in waves of brilliant turbans, orange, crimson, gold, and white, according to the provinces from which they came, and in a black and solid square sat the bare-headed delegates from Bengal," Nevinson describes picturesquely.

The first business was the election of the President. The Nationalists had proposed Lala Lajpat Rai, just released from prison, to be the President of the 23^rd Congress. The Moderates opposed this, and chose instead Dr. Rashbehari Ghose, a lawyer from Calcutta. His name was duly proposed, and Lajpat Rai withdrew his.

But when Surendranath rose to second the motion, and before he could utter a full sentence, tumult burst. "Waving their arms, their scarves, their sticks, and umbrellas, a solid mass of delegates and spectators on the right of the Chair sprang to their feet and shouted without a moment's pause." That is Nevinson giving an eyewitness account. "Over their heads was the label, 'Central Provinces'— Central Provinces where Nagpur stands and the Congress was to have been.

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'Remember Nagpur!' they cried; 'Remember Midnapur!' ... White turbans from Madras joined them. The whole ten thousand were on their feet, shouting for order, shouting for tumult." Surendranath tried again and again to speak, again and again he was shouted down with cries of 'Shame, shame !Traitor I' The Congress broke up without transacting any business.

"Wild defence was met by wild denunciation, but no violence followed. It was still a polite and peaceful people, anxious to leave conciliation open."

Thus ended the first day of the Surat Congress.

Surendranath called a meeting of all the Bengali delegates that night at his camp, thinking perhaps to be able to bring round the Extremists to his side. "Eh !Scandalous, shameful! Isn't it! Come. come let us make it up," and more words in that vein. He got prepared a document to that effect and expected everyone to sign it. But the young invitees showed no interest. "Show it to the other man." "See if that person will sign it? " and so on. Then when Sat yen Bose of Midnapore was approached, he said, "Give it to me. Mister, I'll sign it." As soon as the paper was in his hand he tore it to pieces, and from hand to hand all the torn bits disappeared.

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